THIS WEEK'S HOT TOPIC
The economic analyst and data journalist Joseph Politano recently published a report on his popular Substack, Apricitas Economics, about declining employment numbers across media, film, and the arts in the age of AI. The long and short of it is that job opportunities in these sectors are disappearing at alarming rates. In total, America has lost more than 200k jobs in these industries over the last four years.
Media has been one of the hardest-hit industries, with written publishing accounting for more than 70k of those lost jobs. (Yay, us.) But other gigs in the arts have proven more resilient. This is particularly at museums, where employment numbers have steadily—and surprisingly—increased at varying rates over Politano’s four-year study period. (Note: This includes all museums, not just those devoted to art.) That’s not to say things are easy for employees at these institutions, though.
Staff at prominent art museums across the country are embroiled in an ongoing fight for labor rights and reasonable pay. Just this month, unionized workers at three New York institutions—the American Folk Art Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Whitney Museum—voted to strike if their demands are not met at the negotiating table. (More on this below.) Workers at the latter institution announced today that if they don’t receive a fair contract offer before October 5, they will walk out. Things could get messy, as the Whitney’s highly-anticipated Roy Lichtenstein survey is set to open on the 11th.
3…THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT “ART OF MANGA” AT THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM
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"Art of Manga,” the first large-scale survey of the genre in North America, opens at the Brooklyn Museum on October 3rd. While the traditional art world may balk over whether the Japanese narrative comic style belongs in a museum, the show features over 600 original drawings, and when it landed at de Young Museum in San Francisco, it drew in over 176,000 attendees, 39,000 of whom were under 18—a record for the museum.
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If you're not familiar with manga, it is a style of graphic novel that draws on a visual aesthetic over 100 years old. Perhaps the most mainstream manga in America is "Dragon Ball" by Akira Toriyama, which was eventually adapted into a very popular animated series, "Dragon Ball Z," that found a wide audience early in the 1990s. Among the best-selling manga is "One Piece," which follows a boy named Monkey D. Luffy as he endeavors to become the Pirate King. "One Piece" was created by Oda Eiichiro, who is featured prominently in the show, among seven other artists.
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Opening in tandem with the Manga show at the Brooklyn Museum is the companion exhibition, “Manga Before Manga: Japanese Art from the Collection.” The Brooklyn Museum has a vast collection of Japanese art and objects, as seen in their 2025 exhibition, “250 Years of Japanese Woodblock Prints.” Their curated selection of prints by Hokusai and Japanese porcelain from the collection shows the lineage of the aesthetic language that led to what is now contemporary manga. The museum has set up several Gashopons, or Japanese vending machines, that dispense miniature toys and keepsakes to remember your visit.
A NUMBER TO KNOW
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The number of New York museum unions that have recently voted to strike if their contract negotiations with management break down. The news underscores a fundamental tension in the art world’s global capital: some of the highest-profile institutions run on the labor of rank-and-file employees living precariously.
The strike authorizations came from the unions at the Whitney, the Brooklyn Museum, and the American Folk Art Museum, according to a report by Tessa Solomon at ARTnews. Although bargaining was still underway at all three institutions as of September 15—meaning no one has actually walked off the job yet—the members’ verified willingness to take that step speaks volumes.
Base pay seems to be the central issue. UAW Local 2110, the amalgamated union for technical, office, and professional workers that represents the staff at this trio of museums, released a statement alleging that the average wage for the institutions’ employees is south of $71,000 a year. That’s the bare-minimum income for single, child-free New Yorkers to stay out of debt, according to the city’s most recent True Cost of Living report.
The average salary matters because the unions represent more than the employees working in typically thankless departments like visitor services. The American Folk Art Museum’s chapter, for instance, also includes members from the education, curatorial, and IT divisions. That the highest-paid of these employees still don’t earn enough to even out the scales for their lower-paid colleagues just goes to show that museum work in New York really is a labor of love for most people doing it—and that, unfortunately, you can’t pay your bills with passion.
—Tim Schneider / The Gray Market
ASK: ACCESS SOPHISTICATED KNOWLEDGE
ASK: What does it look like trying to get a job in the art world today? Any advice for someone on the hunt?
NoReserve: It’s hard. There’s just no other way to put it. Jobs are disappearing; urban rents are rising like rockets. Ask virtually anyone in the art world, and you’ll hear about prolonged periods of unemployment, mountains of unanswered applications, nights spent sleeping on studio floors, and any number of odd side gigs. Passing through this crucible has almost become a rite of passage for people in the industry—and that sucks.
Is this the new reality, or just a chapter shaped by geopolitical instability and economic uncertainty? Who knows. Our advice for those looking to crack the art world? You’ve heard it before: community. It’s through friends and acquaintances that most jobs are handed out. More often than not, it requires some shoe leather—attending galleries and talks, reaching out to people you admire. Face-to-face interactions go a long way. Below are a few additional tips from Baer Faxt staffers.
“Per my own experience, there's no silver bullet—certainly not an advanced degree—that will guarantee success at finding a job in the art world. But if you go down that route, find a specialty you're good at and get really good at it. You can always become a generalist later.”
“I've been told the difference between me getting a job versus another candidate has been my timely responses. I've had the most luck applying for opportunities within the first few days that they're posted (the earlier, the better!) and speaking openly about needing a job to anyone who will listen. You'd be surprised how many resources you can acquire just by complaining! Many aspects of getting a job in the art world are beyond your control. The things that are in your control—your talent and your health, in particular—should be your main focus.”
Have your own question for the NoReserve team? Reply to this email or reach out to us on Instagram, @no.reserve. Readers whose submissions we choose get a special prize—six free months of our paid newsletter, The Baer Faxt.
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If anyone can speak to the rising interest in art among sports stars, it's art advisor Gardy St. Fleur, whose educational-first, community-centric approach has made him the person athletes call first. Over two decades, he's built a practice around studio visits rather than showrooms, working from a conviction Josh Baer heard years ago from his own client John McEnroe: the artist alone with the work is in the same position as the player at center court, all the lights on you and nowhere to hide.
He joins Josh ahead of the Atlanta Art Fair to talk about what players see in artists, what happens when the preview PDF stops working, and what they're each hoping to find on the ground in Atlanta.
The Atlanta Art Fair runs October 1–4, 2026 at Pullman Yards. For more information, visit theatlantaartfair.com. Recorded in partnership with AAF on September 16, 2026.
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